Oral Communication Assessment Procedures and Instrument Development in Higher Education. A Report by the Subcommittee for Oral Communication Assessment in Higher Education.

Rubin, Rebecca B.; And Others

Divided into two sections, this report describes research on the range and degree of assessment of students' communication skills in colleges and universities and includes the following findings: (1) of the 384 respondents from college speech communication departments, 45 reported using large-scale, uniform testing of students; (2) these large-scale programs were designed to fulfill four main purposes--course exemption, placement/screening, evaluation within classes, and teacher certification; (3) programs assessed students' public speaking, voice and articulation, communication anxiety, speech and hearing, listening, group discussion, and interpersonal communication; (4) assessment methods included oral, written, and both oral and written modes; and (5) most communication educators were actively searching for reliable, valid assessment instruments and procedures. The second section of the report includes descriptions of the procedures and instruments used by the 45 colleges and universities in their assessment programs, indicates assessment purposes, skills evaluated, and mode of assessment, and lists a contact person in each institution. (MM)